Vortical structures in the near-wake region of a cubic obstacle are studied using numerical simulation. We consider flow between two parallel plates with a cube mounted on one of the plates. In the turbulent near-wake region of the flow, coherent stru...
Vortical structures in the near-wake region of a cubic obstacle are studied using numerical simulation. We consider flow between two parallel plates with a cube mounted on one of the plates. In the turbulent near-wake region of the flow, coherent structures such as hairpin vortices are found. Quasi-periodic behavior of the hairpin vortices is noticed; its dimensionless frequency at Re=1,000 is about 0.82 which is consistent with the result of Elavarasan of et al.'s experiment [Fluid Dyn. Research, 2000, 27] although their geometry is somewhat different from on. In the case of Re=3,500, the dimensionless frequency of the hairpin vortex is about 1.60. It is observed that the translating speed of the head of the hairpin vortex is lower than the streamwise mean velocity at that location. In the vicinity of the lower plate downstream of the cube, various length scales are identified thus less coherent. However, it is noticed that the vortical structures become gradually elongated downstream of the new reattachment.